"We want to keep it as the heart of Los Alamitos…This is a gathering area where the community comes tonight." - Cori Crismon, a volunteer with the Historical Plaza

"It's the spanish, Latino thing. Music, the people have been really, really nice. You couldn't ask for nicer people. They make you feel at home. It's like coming home from work and eating your dinner." Curtis Wright, Long Beach. Wright, discovered St. Isidore's Picnics after being released from Los Alamitos Medical Center after a surgery.

"I do think it's important for the community that it is here. There's so much lost. Here is this little church. I think if they would lose it they would lose this little niche of history." Marianne Zamboni, Paramount. Zamboni drives down with family and friends to visit St. Isidore Historical Plaza every week.

Historical landmarks are protected in California. Registering a place as a historical landmark isn’t hard to do.

According to the California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation, “The State Historical Resources Commission has designed this program for use by state and local agencies, private groups and citizens to identify, evaluate, register and protect California’s historical resources.”

The Comité del Amor has had the opportunity to file and obtain the designation of St. Isidore as a California historical landmark since 1999. It has not obtained that designation.

There are any one of four reasons that designation can be placed on a property.

Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values.

Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

In the more than 13 years that local political leaders like Marilynn Poe and Troy Edgar have been championing to “save” the facility, the state has not said that the facility meets the criterion for being designated a historical landmark.

Yes, any number of people in Los Alamitos and the surrounding areas can point to pertinent moments in their personal lives where the Roman Catholic Church that was there touched them personally. From baptisms to funerals. From confirmations to weddings.

These types of buildings and the events that we share within their walls touch us and stay with us. But that doesn’t mean that they meet the criterion to be considered historical landmarks, to be “saved” from the property’s ownership to do what they want with their property.

For most of the people that live in Los Alamitos the structure is a nice old building. It is not historic and not worthy of “saving” or any investment of our city’s time or our tax dollars.

It’s time to let the Diocese of Orange do what they want with their old property. Their options are limited, and through the Planning Commission the people in Los Alamitos will have some voice in how the property will next be used.

If the people of Los Alamitos really want to save a historical landmark, there is one still standing. It’s a part of the old sugar beet factory, the lifeblood of Los Alamitos at the turn of the century.

The Diocese of Orange wants to sell their property for the best money they can get for it.

Since the property doesn’t meet the criteria to be a California historical landmark, maybe it’s time to pass on the personal sentimentality and let them do what they want with their property.

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